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Miami police officer found dead in his home

PEMBROKE PINES | Authorities are investigating the death of a Miami police officer in his home as a homicide.

Carl Ronaldo Patrick was found dead Friday in his Pembroke Pines home. No arrests have been made.

According to Miami Fraternal Order of Police President Javier Ortiz, Patrick was wearing his uniform when he died and his lunch and city laptop were inside the patrol car parked outside his house.

"We are confident that the City of Miami will treat his murder as a line-of-duty death," Ortiz said in a statement late Sunday.

Miami police officials asked for privacy for Patrick's family and said the department "feels the loss of our brother very deeply."

"We are such a close-knit family, and it really is like losing a family member," police spokeswoman Frederica Burden said Sunday. "It really hurts."

The Miami Herald reports (http://hrld.us/1iFqIUn ) that Miami Mayor Tomas Regalado said Saturday that investigators believed Patrick was shot by a police public service aide who had a relationship with him.

Patrick had been a Miami police officer for 25 years, and he was a member of the department's honor guard. Family and friends remembered him Sunday as an officer who loved his job and enjoyed caring for his elderly mother.